Zapf M (2025)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes
Publication year: 2025
Publisher: AVM
Edited Volumes: Social Media: Current Issues in Romance Linguistics and Foreign Language Learning and Teaching
City/Town: München
Pages Range: 87–116
ISBN: 978-3-96091-614-7
URI: https://www.avm-verlag.de/res/user/avm/media/9783960916147-zapf.pdf
Open Access Link: https://www.avm-verlag.de/res/user/avm/media/9783960916147-zapf.pdf
Gender-inclusive language is a highly debated topic in France and beyond. Research in linguistics and neighboring disciplines has focused on the relationship between linguistic gender and perceived biological sex and/or social gender, as well as on various factors related to the actual use of genderinclusive language and the masculine generic. However, the arguments opponents of gender-inclusive language put forth in favor of their position have yet to be considered in more detail. This paper aims to shed light on typical arguments against gender-inclusive language and underlying ideologies. To this end, a corpus of tweets with comments against gender-inclusive language published in May 2021 in France, Spain, and Germany was created and examined from the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis. The results show a strong ideological basis for the comments: proponents of gender-inclusive language are construed as an out-group, and its members are presented as ideologically blinded, manipulating, irrational, dangerous, and so forth. This out-group is contrasted with the in-group – opponents of gender-inclusive language –, and the in-group’s need to fight against the out-group in order to protect their language and, with this, the existing social order is highlighted. Thus, it is not so much questions of language use but rather questions of power that are negotiated in this discourse.
APA:
Zapf, M. (2025). ‘Stop à cette ineptie d’écriture inclusive. Stop à la dictature des idéologies stupides !’ – A Critical Analysis of Twitter Comments against Gender-Inclusive Language. In Eibensteiner, Lukas; Hesselbach, Robert (Eds.), Social Media: Current Issues in Romance Linguistics and Foreign Language Learning and Teaching. (pp. 87–116). München: AVM.
MLA:
Zapf, Miriam. "‘Stop à cette ineptie d’écriture inclusive. Stop à la dictature des idéologies stupides !’ – A Critical Analysis of Twitter Comments against Gender-Inclusive Language." Social Media: Current Issues in Romance Linguistics and Foreign Language Learning and Teaching. Ed. Eibensteiner, Lukas; Hesselbach, Robert, München: AVM, 2025. 87–116.
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